Landscape painting  with view of village Olevano in the Roman Campagna was executed in 1860  by good listed Austrian landscape painter and stage decorator Josef Hoffmann (1831 Vienna - 1904 Vienna).

A student of Sebastian Wegmayr, he spent several months at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. At the age of 18, he traveled with a friend of his father through Styria, Croatia, and Serbia, and in 1850 to Persia. Returning to Vienna, he joined Carl Rahl's studio in 1851 and remained his student until 1856. He then traveled via Munich and Tyrol to Venice, then to Greece in 1857 and Rome in 1858, where he stayed for six years. The large-scale, ideal Greek landscapes were created or designed here.

He was a representative of the heroic-historicist style in landscape painting. From 1887 onwards, he traveled again, including to Tunis, Algiers, and the Balearic Islands. In 1889, he returned to Turkey, then to Egypt in 1891. From 1893 to 1894, he traveled around the world, visiting India, Java, China, Japan, and North America.

Literature: artist lexicon by Thieme/Becker  XVII, 1924; by Prof.H. Fuchs, Maler (19.Cent.) II, 1973; in on-line: Wikipedia in German.

Inscriptions: signed lower right and dated 18.10 1860 lower left; antique bronze plaque with the artist's name, mounted to the frame; on the back is old pencil German  inscriptions: ”original oelskizze von JosefHoffmann” and ”Olevano/ Italien”.

Technique: oil on canvas/cardboard, original period frame.

Measurements: unframed w 15 1/2" x h 10 3/4" (39,5 x 27,5 cm), framed 20 3/4" x 15 1/8" (52,5 x 38,5 cm).

Condition: good.